Microsoft patents smart smartphone dock

Microsoft has been pushing an initiative in developing countries for a while now, promoting the smartphone as the new PC for the poor. They however recognize that the small screens and poor text entry features of most smartphones are not exactly ideal for the role.

In comes their docking cradle, which they are applying a patent for. The dock would feature connectivity options like USB, ethernet, and boast the ability to host a hard disk drive and even extra processors to take the load of the smartphone processor.

Uniquely the dock would not depend on the smartphone hosting the drivers for the connected devices, but rather have its own software layer which will connect to the external devices.

Microsoft envisions users saving money by connecting the dock to a cheap television instead of a relatively expensive monitor.